Greek Animal Bells

Description from KIOSK

• Goat: 4.25″ x 4.5″; Sheep: 3.25″ x 4.5″; Posh 2.75″ x 5.5″
• Metal
• GREECE
• THIS IS AN ONGOING ITEM!

Whether you have sheep, or goats… well, no matter–if you have anything to herd, you have a need for a bell. In this case the bells are made for different animals: the round bronze one is for sheep; the more square one, for goats; and the “golden” one is for posh goats, naturally. “Posh goat?!” you say. I agree. What makes one goat more posh than others? The same could be said for people… However, you know that goats, posh or not, do not go into shops and buy the bells themselves. And even if they did, with their hooves, could they put one on their collar? It’s the shepherd who does this, and some shepherds like their goats to be more posh than others, you know that too. Poshness aside, each bell has a distinct sound, and this helps the shepherd locate his or her animals easily. This can be a herculean task, especially in some mountainous regions. We met a shepherdess on the road one evening at dusk in the Mani. We were near Poseidon’s tomb and the light was going. She was calling her goat, or sheep–or perhaps husband–but we romanticized things and imagined all sorts of stories on the way back home, wondering why a woman was standing alongside a cliff, at near dark, outside her car, shouting in a singing-yet-crying tone. Then we remembered we heard the bells. Greece is magical.